The Punisher Star Jon Bernthal Has Upsetting Response When Asked About Marvel Comeback

The stars of Netflix’s Marvel TV shows are always facing the same question: “When will you return to that role?” The series had varying degrees of success in terms of critical and fan acclaim, but virtually all of them had great casting in common, with fans heaping praise on the actors chosen to play the lead roles in Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher. The last of those, The Walking Dead veteran Jon Bernthal, had some bad news for fans in the latest round of “Will you ever play the MCU’s Frank Castle on TV again?”

The short version: Bernthal doesn’t have any more idea than the fans do when or whether his version of The Punisher will ever be revived. He is, however, slightly less concerned about the possibility than some fans.

“You know, we’ll see,” Bernthal told Screen Rant while promoting his new indie film Small Engine Repair. “I mean, honestly, I don’t think about it very much. I’m really happy — look, we’re all enormously blessed to be doing this. I can say for the other guys that you’re talking to as well, we really love this. We really love doing this. We work hard at it, we support our families by it, through it, but we never lose touch just how grateful we are to be in the position that we are that we get to do this for a living. I like to do this. I like to work with people I really respect and love and admire and make stuff with. This kind of project is precisely, it’s exactly the kind of stuff I want to be doing. So, whatever else comes, you know, kind of down the road, comes. But, this is something that’s really worth celebrating.”

Bernthal’s fan-favorite take on Frank Castle first debuted on Daredevil, but spun off into his own TV series in 2017. It ended in 2019, a victim of Disney’s decision to terminate all of their Netflix Marvel shows ahead of the launch of Disney+ and a new wave of shows much more intrinsically tied to the movies. Like many actors from the Netflix shows, Bernthal has expressed interest in coming back, should the opportunity arise, but since all of the management has changed over since the Netflix days, the actors tend to have little insight into the possibility of it ever happening.